1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to water monitoring systems and, more particularly, to a system and method for monitoring the quality of tap water using a drinking water impurity detection system that simultaneously transmits and records water quality data, with interactive web-interface to facilitate user sign-up processes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The demand for purer water products is generally increasing. Government agencies need to produce higher quality water products, of the kind derived using chlorine in particular, in order to meet increasingly stringent safety and environmental standards, as well as to improve general operations. Additionally, due to the demand for purer tap water by its millions of household users worldwide, public health authorities are being increasingly compelled to monitor the various contaminants in the water stream during the various processes such as, for example, desalination, to ensure that the water meets the demand for purity and to be able to take rapid corrective measures to detect and/or reduce the contaminants when they do begin to appear. Particular contaminants, which may be present in the water and more particularly, in the chlorine content, are halocarbons, including methylene chloride, chloroform. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,201 discloses a representative chlorine quality monitoring system.) In order to monitor the water contaminants and have the ability to take corrective action, it is necessary that a suitable system and method be available which will accurately detect and measure such contaminants and which can also be used on-line at the household site, taking samples directly from its tap stream.
The primary causes of water pollution include household waste, industrial waste, farm pesticide(s) and the animal waste produced by hog and poultry farms which can result in the notorious E. coli strain of bacteria, responsible for a number of recent fatalities. As the pollution problems threatening the source of our drinking water such as the river become increasingly worrisome, people lose their confidence in the quality of the drinking water provided by the local water company and/or government ministries. In addition, people""s anxiety about the quality of their drinking water is further aggravated by the fact that the conditions of the water supplying pipes and reservoirs are often found to be unsatisfactory. Accordingly, a variety of water-treating devices such as water-filtering devices, water purifying devices, water softening devices, etc., have become ubiquitous in offices, homes, factories, schools, religious institutions and so on.
The conventional systems for water purification have now become passxc3xa9, creating the requirement for a new detection device and system, as opposed to a filter, that will serve this need to warn the average household user of a potential health hazard not only in the household, but quite possibly and much more probably, in the community at large. Existing systems, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,991, can be used to warn individual consumers but fail to integrate water quality information from a plurality of consumers; such integration not only helps to identify the overall scope of an existing water contamination problem but also enables consumers to be pre-warned of potential problems through notification of surrounding water quality readings.
Even in the case of the average carbon or reverse-osmosis filters that are currently on the market, the purifying elements used there are generally replaced after a predetermined period of time of usage without knowing the actual condition of the elements themselves. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,867 discloses a water filter that displays the state of the life span of a filter cartridge therein, based on the amount of water which has passed through the filter. This approach assumes a relatively constant contaminant level in the incoming water and does not account for actual contamination which may increase in response to environmental or other changes. Hence, in many cases, overused purifying elements are not replaced in a timely manner, thus resulting in the consumer unknowingly drinking the poor quality water produced by such an ineffective water purification system. This scenario actually provides an excellent environment for bacteria and fungi to grow. Such overused and clogged elements would contaminate the water passing through the systems instead of purifying it. This illustrates the need not only for a filtration element, but more importantly perhaps, an impurity and contaminant identifier.
Representatively, U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,863 is directed to the detection of contaminants in water supplies of municipal utilities, industrial processes and surrounding water supply systems. Ground, surface or industrial water is pumped into a storage chamber and preconditioned for analysis. The water analysis structure is highly complex, including such elements as hydraulic module, fuzzy logic correlator and controller, neural network, etc., and does not represent a system that may be easily and effectively implemented within the household environment of a typical consumer for immediate tap water quality verification and which enables the consumer to receive feedback through a centralized monitoring station over a distributed computer network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,573 teaches a water purification monitoring system for a beverage processing system. Various system characteristics are monitored using sensors, with data being transmitted to a remotely located computer for diagnosis. The system is designed to operate at the municipal water supply level for monitoring a primary water source, and is not a practical solution for residential water quality monitoring requirements on an individualized basis.
Previously, a common practice in home water monitoring has been to send an individual sample of water to be tested by way of a water-sampling laboratory, litmus tests, etc. It has become important, however, for public health bacteriologists to have a faster, more accurate way of measuring certain selected characteristics possessed by a single simple sample of common tap water. In addition, it is important to note that a single sample is of limited value. The most a single sample can show is the water quality at the time and place of sampling. Therefore, a system is needed whereby repeat samplings may be performed, such as every few weeks.
Whether one sample or many, the whole process generally needs to be expedited from a customer""s standpoint. Having an electronic file transfer of information pertaining to the above allows costs to be kept to a minimum. Although the traditional paper contract serves the purpose of security well, nowadays authentication systems have been developed specifically to ensure the enforceability of electronic contracts, as mentioned later in this document. One such method of authenticating electronic contracts in order to make them legally enforceable is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,613, which utilizes digital signatures.
There exists therefore, a significant need for further improvements: 1) in expediting the whole water monitoring process on an individual basis; 2) in water quality monitors for testing and indicating the relative quality of a tap water system, particularly a water quality monitor made responsive to the predetermined values of the unit so that accurate and reliable test readings will result in a more spontaneous fashion; 3) in regularly repeating the water sampling process in a convenient, cost-effective way; and 4) in integrating water quality data from a plurality of consumers through the means of today""s available technology to transmit information across vast distances, if necessary, to a Central Monitoring Station (CMS) through which customer feedback information is provided over a distributed computer network.
In light of the above, the primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved system and method for measuring chlorine and contaminants in tap water which allows for quickened response and recording for the user, measuring a plurality of different contaminants.
Another object of the invention is to disclose a novel apparatus for automatically making intermittent qualitative measurements of the properties of a water sample, in order to determine if the water meets certain predescribed standards as programmed, and then advancing informational values to the Central Monitoring Station (CMS) when the output water quality is below that standard.
It is another related object of the present invention to provide a water analyzing system of the aforementioned type which is particularly useful in determining if industrial water being drawn from a pipe is in a suitable unpolluted condition for an average household consumer.
It is yet another object to disclose an apparatus that can sense and sequentially record (on a single screen) a heavy metal level or other component content of a flowing sample of tap water, for example, a chlorine content, such that the user can always be assured that he/she has a reliable computer-charted representation of his or her water stream available within moments over a distributed computer network.
Another object of the invention is a technique for repeatedly testing water samples at a consumer""s tap which allows for valid comparison of data collected in different places at various times and identification of trends in water quality.
A further object of the invention is a method for using a computer system to facilitate a transaction between a customer and a company, comprising inputting into the computer a payment identification specifying a credit card account and simultaneously being automatically assigned a password unique to that customer, for sign-up to the water monitoring service and corresponding website of the present invention.
Yet another object of the invention is an integrated water monitoring and reporting system in which water quality data is collected from a plurality of consumers by a CMS and made available to the consumers on a web site accessible over a distributed computer network such as the Internet.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention may be achieved through the provision of a system and method of sensing the presence of various contaminants, chlorine, heavy metals, etc., in tap water, and providing a warning alert signal to the user in a more immediate and improved fashion. The present invention ensures that the tap water will maintain a quality of purity in conformity with the standard in public health for that region. The present invention is also adapted for notifying off-site maintenance personnel at a CMS of a hazardous public health situation, and recording the data for future reference. An added benefit to the user is the ability to sign up for the services immediately with the ability to choose the terms via live web interaction, and of viewing their water usage as well. This system and method may also be applied to business and industrial usage.
The method for monitoring the quality of drinking water according to the present invention comprises taking a sample in a stream of water, passing a portion of the sample to an analyzer, detecting the presence of chlorine, heavy metals, etc. in the sample stream, and passing that data (via EDI) regarding the presence of the detected material to a common data acquisition network, which could be wireless, for recording and data output at CMS, and then onwards to the website for customer queries.
The present invention comprises a system and method for monitoring the quality of water and transmitting that information. A preferred embodiment includes a line for taking a sample stream of water, an analyzer, a microprocessor control box, and a common data acquisition network. Lines may be provided for taking a plurality of portions of the sample and passing portions to the analyzer. The analyzer may be a halocarbon in chlorine analyzer, a fiber-optic based residual chlorine monitor, and/or an ultra-violet lamp/reactor located beneath the faucet tap water unit or adjacent an incoming water line near the hot water heater or pump, depending on the embodiment. The control box converts the signals and transmits them onto the network. A central monitoring station is provided for receiving data from the network and integrating and outputting that data.
Through the use of a suitable number of the aforementioned described instruments, it is possible to present concrete evidence on a charted record(s) or database, located at the CMS, showing the exact time at which a certain measured condition of the tap water indicated it to be contaminated and/or polluted. These values can be presented on a corresponding website within minutes of detection.
The present invention provides rapid analysis and reliability. There is no required maintenance for photometric devices, and no chemicals are required. The system exhibits no drift in the response over time and, for spectrophotometric devices, is not affected by interferences. Furthermore, the overall system is relatively portable. These and other objects are attained by the present invention which may be better understood from the following description, reference being made to the accompanying drawings.